Damian Lillard has sent a message to the Portland Trail Blazers: he isn’t interest in a rebuild.
“I don’t have much of an appetite for building with guys two and three years away and not really go after it,” Lillard told reporters on Sunday.
In other words, if Portland doesn’t get Victor Wembanyama in the draft, Lillard wants Portland to trade the pick for a player who can help right now.
While Lillard has been famously and fiercely loyal to Portland from day one, that loyalty gets tested more and more every year that the Blazers fail to put a competitive team around him.
Many wondered if Portland had finally pushed Lillard too far last summer when they traded CJ McCollum for a package which yielded them very little outside of Josh Hart, who they soon flipped to New York (where he has excelled beyond belief).
Lillard still didn’t demand a trade however, but judging by his latest comments, he’s making it very clear to Portland that the clock is ticking.
Perhaps one thing keeping the star guard in Portland is his belief that there are good players who want to join him on the Blazers, which was something he briefly alluded to during his media availability on Sunday.
Portland better hope he’s right.
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